Brazil’s Bovespa: this year’s worst performing equity market so far

According to Financial Times:“Its stock index is down almost 14 per cent this year. Bank share prices have lost 10-20 per cent, the construction sector is in an even worse state, and the shares of some industrial companies have dropped as much as 40 per cent.

No, we’re not talking about Greece or Spain. This is Brazil.

The Latin American country has been a top destination for investors looking to escape the murky climes of Europe and the US; the sun is always shining and ebitda has never been more plentiful.

But Brazil is now shaping up to be one of this year’s worst performing equity markets. Foreign investment in the country’s stocks has dropped a whopping 70 per cent in the first six months of the year from the same period last year, and the Bovespa index is trading around a 14-month low.”

And according to Bloomberg:Vale SA declined as second-quarter profit at the world’s biggest iron-ore producer and largest stock on the index missed analysts’ estimates while Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA tumbled after Brazil’s second-biggest airline by market value cut some of its 2011 forecasts and was downgraded at Credit Suisse Group SA and Banco BTG Pactual. “External elements are combining with domestic uncertainties to drive the Brazilian market right now,” Eric Conrads, who helps manage $12 billion in emerging market stocks at ING Investment Management in New York, said in a phone interview. “Earnings are also not coming in that great. Vale, Gol — you have a lot of misses, so that’s not helping.”